


Inferno

by ButterGhost



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Artificial Intelligence, Burning to death, Death, F/M, Fire, Grief/Mourning, Past Life Regression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Resurrection, Robots, Trauma, all aboard the trauma train, ghost POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:09:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28722642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterGhost/pseuds/ButterGhost
Summary: I watched my Guardian die in one of-..no. THE worst way possible today.And I did nothing.I let it happen.
Relationships: Ghost/Guardian (Destiny)
Kudos: 11





	Inferno

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by Ghost Stories, a collection of game lore that I love and you should read it, it’s funny and sad and it might make you cry. 
> 
> Anyways here’s some Ghost POV because I eat stories like this for breakfast and maybe there are some peeps out there who are as thirsty for it as I amckcjrnc.
> 
> Trigger warning, brutal imagery - burning alive.

_ I watched my Guardian die in one of-..no. THE worst way possible today.  _

_ And I did nothing. _

_ I let it happen.  _

_ I’m so furious, absolutely livid with myself that I want to float off into space and perhaps be dispatched by Sol, but…*synthesized sigh* that wouldn’t do her much good. I wouldn’t actually do that, mind you.  _

_ It all started with one of our first missions to Earth, EDZ. I used to love the EDZ, and still do, but after this...frankly, may have changed my mind.  _

_ Devrim, that sardonic twit, directed us to a location where the Cabal were going to attempt another drilling session (which tends to happen so much I won’t get into it). So we arrived, my Guardian and I, in the middle of this puddle, right outside of this ginormous tunnel system the tub-‘a-lards have built.  _

_ She, Omios, my Guardian...she was so excited to be at the EDZ.  _

_ I had yet to see that side of her, running about and finding every piece of flora and fauna riveting. Her Light sang complete and utter joy, and I didn’t want to stop basking in it...reminded me of how I was when I first came to the EDZ as a green Ghost.  _

_ As much as I wanted to let her have her fun ( I can’t lie, I was having fun too) I knew what this region harbored, so I tried to keep her focused on our objective.  _

_ That’s the sad part - I knew. I know what the Cabal are capable of. I SURVIVED it. I just can’t believe myself, hardly worthy of my Guardian… _

_ Anyways...I was saying. We’re in this oversized puddle. The huge bloody drill materializes. My Guardian, along with some others that responded to Devrim’s call, ready themselves. She grips her shotgun that she isn’t one-hundred percent comfortable with using, but its the most powerful weapon she has.  _

_ Then….those red beams started sizzling the water. This is part of the Cabal defending their drill. A tactical maneuver of defense. She’s standing smack-dab in the middle of one, and I can hear her armor starting to combust. Other Guardians scatter, this clearly isn’t their first battle, but it's one of ours. And she starts frantically trying to put out the fire that is starting to eat away at her skin - but it's not fire, it's a glorified laser beam destroying the atoms of her body, and she runs, screaming.  _

_ Just as a platoon of Cabal drop from one of their ships.  _

_ Her helmet visor melted, she couldn’t see the HUD, then -  _

_ One that has a flamethrower opens fire, and she goes up like tinder.  _

_ Me? Funny you should ask, me, the most useless Ghost there ever was - at this point, I did the worst damned thing I could ever do and materialized myself outside of her armor, outside of the flames that were consuming her. Don’t ask me what I was thinking because I wasn’t, simple as that.  _

_ Did I mention it was night time? _

_ It, it could have been the laser pre-singing her body, combined with fuel, but...but…. _

_ I flail for her with my Light, I try to catch her, to hold her, but what I touch I can’t even say was consciousness. It was like a pillar of photons scorching the air, static. What was once her mind was just a vacuum filled with never ending white noise. I pulled back in disbelief. _

_ Her inky form, swallowed by hellfire, was vanishing, skin and internal organs crumbling in the thermal updraft. Instead of the gentle warmth that usually graced me was brain components oozing out of her eye sockets. Her mouth was a gaping hole, growing wider and unhinged, melting, then the most unholy sound I have ever heard ripped out of her scorched vocals and reverberated off of the distant mountains.  _

_ I think I recall the flurry of movement in the background slowing, as I surly wasn’t the only one who had heard that supernatural screech. Maybe even the Cabal stopped fighting long enough to look at the spectacle taking place before them, to witness the suffering they had caused, but I didn’t move -  _

_ I was entombed with utter horror.  _

_ As the last of her howl left her body, her arm, she...she… _

_ Reached out for me, groping desperately… _

_ … _

_ Excuse me, I need a moment. _

_ In her last movement, I felt a push, maybe the tiniest bit of her cortex that was left sent a plea, and it snapped me out of my shock.  _

_ Finally being useful, I flashed a scan over what remained of my Risen and dematerialized us both somewhere off in the forest, far enough so that the battle wouldn’t find us.  _

_ What I thought was “us”...I discovered, once materializing behind a tree, a pile of ash. _

_ Omios, what was left of her, sat on a mound of moss in the moonlight.  _

_ She...she was dust now, carbon.  _

_ I don’t know how long I watched smoke rise from her remains. Most likely until the smoldering ceased.  _

_ The forest had grown still, besides a small breeze.  _

_ My insides, my core. Slowly hollowing out, growing cold.  _

_ She was gone. _

_ I was..alone.  _

_——_

_ The rest of what happened is a bit of a blur in my memory banks, I was entirely focused on finding something to put her ashes in.  _

_ I managed to find a glass bottle, Traveler must have been smiling down on me. I might have been thrilled about the fact that I had found a possible piece of Golden Age archeology, but this hardly mattered. I needed to get her to safety, that was the only thing going through my mind.  _

_ Frantically transmatting myself across the EDZ, I finally came to the area near the damn where our ship was cloaked and docked. Thankfully, Fallen hadn’t detected it, but there wasn’t much value for them even if they had.  _

_ Once inside and had initiated its boot sequence, I left Devrim a brief message. This is the only thing I don’t recall, I probably spouted some nonsense about another mission coming up or the like.  _

_ I didn’t focus until the ship was at altitude. I hadn’t even realized that I was still in material form above the ship control panels.  _

_ Even with the constant noise the ship made, the silence was deafening. It was heavy. Heavy with emptiness. _

_ I glanced at the pilot’s chair and saw the bottle sitting there, her ashes within it. I didn’t remember putting it there. I’m surprised the ship hadn’t dropped out of the sky, but I kept it together, for her sake. _

_ I could bring her back, which was my only relief. I didn’t need physical pieces of her, but it helped the rebuilding process. I could bring her back solely with memory. _

_ Staring at the control panel, that’s truly what it felt like - just a memory.  _

_ The Tower couldn’t come fast enough.  _

_ — _

_ Finally, FINALLY I was inside our quarters. I tried to ignore how quiet the room was. _

_ Tried to ignore how I had practically put another hole into a building - this time The Tower - with our ship. Threw the ship’s password data at Holliday in my haste.  _

_ None of it mattered.  _

_ I just had to get her back.  _

_ Carefully, I transmatted her remains onto the floor and stared at it...them? Her?  _

_ I realized that if I resurrected her onto the glass bottle, she might break the glass and cut herself, so I gingerly emptied the bottle onto the floor. _

_ I, I don’t know what was holding me back. Something just...didn’t feel right.  _

_ The lighting? Maybe the lighting, I thought - if she came back in darkness, she might panic, I know I would. I didn’t want to activate the living quarter lights, that just didn’t seem appropriate. I searched under the sink and found some small emergency candles and matches. I pinched one between my shell plates and lit them - they helped give the small quarters a slightly more calming atmosphere.   
_

_ With proper lighting set, I once again stationed myself above her ashes.  _

_ Yet… _

_ Attempting to calm my buzzing processors, I practiced pushing and pulling my shell out a few times, much like how humans do. What mattered the most was bringing my Risen back, the error floating around in my collected data could wait.  _

_ With a few more exercises, I felt ready. I closed my optic and focused on my Light, the Light connecting both of us to the Traveler. I let it grow, take hold of my Guardian’s remains. I could feel my processors filling and pouring out her information, giving her physical form once again.  _

_ Her Light! I could feel it, see it! I wanted to cry, I was so happy to see a living part of her again. Like a blast of cool air, her body took shape in a burst of energy. I can imagine that’s what a long, calming breath would feel like.  _

_ Ending the dance, I pulled my energy back and closed my shell. I opened my eye and there she was, laying flat where her dust had been. Ashes really don’t give the prior physical body justice.  _

_ I don’t know what I was expecting. What had happened before when I resurrected her for the first time - a slow wake up, maybe. One thing I have learned in my decades ...and from this painful fiasco: expect the unexpected.  _

_ Her eyes flew open and she was immediately writhing, contorting in ways I didn’t know she could, gasping, her hands all over her body. Wet, metallic chokes came from her mouth.  _

_ Trying to control the situation, I flew up to her and scanned her. She was healthy, but she...she was acting like she couldn’t breathe. And she didn’t need to breathe.  _

_ I tried to get her attention, I shouted her name, but she kept flailing, fingers digging into her synthetic flesh and anything she came in contact with. Dodging her limbs, I reached out to our neural link and, hesitantly, pushed her.  _

_ She seemed to react to this, her movements snapping still. Her eyes grew wider, and the rise and fall of her diaphragm slowed. Her head slowly, slowly. Turned.  _

_ Her glowing eyes locked onto mine.  _

_ What I felt from her mind in that first brief connection was more solid, familiar - I was so relieved to find that her consciousness had structure now. But that awful sound still tore through it, that static. I was thankful, yet shocked. Because what mostly made up her mind at that moment was inscommprehensible fear. So much of it that I couldn’t delve much deeper because she hadn’t reciprocated our connection, or much less noticed it. But enough of my call had gotten through, and she was aware of me now. At least.  _

_ Even though I could hardly bare the emotion drowning her brain, I held fast and pushed a little harder. I told her I was here, that she was safe now. I felt her catch our connection and grab hold, riding out the torrent in her mind.  _

_ Her eyes stayed on me, and to be honest, I was a little dubious of what might follow - she wasn’t in full control of herself, but I had faith that somewhere deep within, the small piece that she did have control of is what counted.  _

_ I blinked, and in that span of time, she leapt across the room, grabbed me and slammed me into something...soft? _

_ I fluttered my optic in confusion. What I was being pushed into was malleable, warm, and pulsed with subtle energy.  _

_ A loud sob vibrated my frame and I looked up. _

_ Omios. Omios had me pressed against her body, clutching me with her trembling hands. _

_ I was being smothered by her breasts. Breasts that I thought would be hard, like metal, or at least armor? But were warm, soft. Comforting. It was like her skin was laced with static.  _

_ Sobs wracked her body, and I looked up - her face was mere inches from me. The odd, ticklish electricity began to arch through my shell the closer her face got.  _

_ As I watched her facial plates shimmer and flex in the flickering candle light, I felt moisture hit my optic. Then it happened again. I thought our ceiling had sprung a leak when I realized..this incredible Exo. Was crying actual tears.  _

_ The candle light twinkled off of the water droplets that ran down her face. I had many questions to ask her, but I knew that could be later addressed.  _

_ Was it odd that even when she was experiencing a full-on meltdown, I found her striking? _

_ Eheh, um. Anyways.  _

_ I listened. Listened to every wordless cry that escaped her, felt her abdominal muscles tense and release as she tried to catch phantom breathes. Felt as her body temperature gradually lowered. Let her tears fall, even if they were on me. I became aware I was quivering, but I don’t think she noticed - I was overcome by so much relief that she was back, I was in her arms.  _

_ Her sobs turned from hiccups to a steady rise and fall. She was exhausted, and so was I, but I couldn’t enter recharge state when I was...that close to her.  _

_ That...was the first time she had touched me.  _

_ Her body was curled around me in a tight ball as she lay on the floor. Her arms were folded around me, still pressing me firmly to her bossom. I was completely limp in her embrace, cushioned by her breasts. She was here.  _

_ I was pressed so tightly to her chest that when I concentrated, I could feel a slight movement from within her. A...pulse of some sort? Not too far from a human heartbeat, but different enough. Instead of two beats, there were three, and no full rest in between. How utterly fascinating, none of the sources I had assessed about Exos said anything about a heartbeat. Then again, there wasn’t much information about them to begin with.  _

_ Her fingers, still entwined around my segments, were firm, yet...even when she had grabbed me, her touch had been delicate. Gentle and dexterous.  _

_ She was everywhere around me. She was everything. I closed my eye. Never had I felt more safe.  _

_ I was exactly where I wanted to be.  _

**Author's Note:**

> Personally, I love writing introspective stories, stories that touch on kind of taboo topics and emotions and perspectives that aren’t frequently done. (Can you tell I’m obsessed with this game yet)


End file.
